Yankees fall to A’s

Sunday

OAKLAND, Calif. — Carlos Beltran rediscovered his power stroke. One inning later, the Yankees slugger forgot how many outs there were.

It was that kind of day for New York, which takes a two-game losing streak into a key series with division-leading Toronto this week.

Beltran homered for the first time since coming off the disabled list in the Yankees’ 10-5 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Sunday. But the veteran also was called out on a strange play in the eighth inning when he lost track of the outs.

With one out and the A’s ahead 10-3, Beltran hit a grounder to short that was turned into a forceout at second. After crossing the bag at first, Beltran trotted toward New York’s first-base dugout. He got halfway there before heading back toward first, but was tagged in foul territory.

“I thought there were two outs,” said Beltran, adding it was the first time in his big league career he’d been called out after losing track of the outs. “It was too late to go back.”

Umpire Dan Iassogna made the call and Yankees manager Joe Girardi came onto the field for a brief discussion. By rule 7.08, Beltran was out for “abandoning” the base.

“It’s an embarrassing play,” Girardi said. “It’s probably happened to all of us. A lot of times it’s more that you slow up running to the bag as opposed to peeling off. It’s a lot more glaring when that happens.”

Derek Norris and Coco Crisp hit early three-run homers off New York starter Vidal Nuno (1-3).

Nuno, who had allowed only three earned runs total over his previous two outings, allowed eight runs and eight hits in three-plus innings.

“It was pretty much not making adjustments,” Nuno said. “They got some little hits here and there and then it was just one pitch, bang. Those two innings, it was a little frustrating not getting ahead of the count and they took advantage.”

The A’s had been held to one run or fewer in four of their previous nine games before taking a 10-0 lead in four innings.

Yoenis Cespedes drove in two runs and Josh Donaldson snapped an 0-for-33 slump with an RBI single.

Jessee Chavez (6-4) carried a shutout into the sixth.

With the second-best record in the majors behind San Francisco, the A’s have won three of four and are off to their best start in nearly 25 years.

Chavez blanked the Yankees until Derek Jeter doubled in the sixth and scored on Mark Teixeira’s two-out single. Oakland’s right-hander was stellar otherwise, allowing five hits over six innings with four strikeouts.

Beltran homered off reliever Ryan Cook in the seventh.

“I felt good, I felt rhythm at the plate,” Beltran said. “It was pretty positive the way I felt. Hopefully I can build from that.”

Brett Gardner also homered for New York, hitting a two-run shot in the ninth. The Yankees put two more runners on base after that against struggling reliever Jim Johnson, and Luke Gregerson came on for the last out.

Jeter played his last scheduled game at the Coliseum and received a lengthy ovation from the sold-out crowd that included several thousand fans decked out in Yankees jerseys. The retiring shortstop was given a bottle of Northern California wine during a pregame ceremony and received a financial donation from the A’s for his Turn 2 Foundation.

The Coliseum is the site of one of Jeter’s most memorable plays, the backhanded flip to the plate that helped save the Yankees in the 2001 playoffs.

Jeter hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the seventh before being replaced by Brendan Ryan in the bottom half of the inning.

NOTES: The 10 runs were the A’s most against the Yankees since 2007 and helped them snap out of a weeklong power slump. Oakland had hit only one home run over its previous five games. ... Gardner had gone 250 at-bats without hitting into a double play until he did so in the third inning, ending the longest active streak in the AL. ... Ichiro Suzuki had two hits to tie Ken Griffey Jr. for 29th on MLB’s career list. ... New York RHP Masahiro Tanaka (10-1) starts against AL East-leading Toronto at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series.

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